Dynamic Obedience - Unsettling Times | Unshakable Faith

Today we're talking about the fourth great passion of the Acts Church, dynamic obedience.

Um anyone have any milestones this year, specific milestones you hit?

I did.

You heard a little bit about it last night, hitting 50 years old. 30 didn't mean anything to me. 40 didn't mean anything.

But man, 50, I remember being a kid and being like, 50, that's old.

And then of course like you heard last I AARP will not let you forget that you're 50 years old.

Um I know where the membership dues go to trees for all that mail Um fifty years old, but also hit twenty-six years, married to Anna.

This year.

Anna holds the official title of the world's most gorgeous Navajo.

You can look it up in uh the Guinness Book of World Records.

Go ahead.

Go ahead.

I'll take some time here.

The guys, the single guys at Warrior Leadership Summit.

I speak there.

I said, look at me.

You are looking at living hope that a guy that looks like me can get a girl that looks like her Still madly in love.

Met Anna with On Eagles Wings, the first year of On Eagles Wings.

Now There is a a rule that everyone jokes about on Eagles Wings now.

It's called rule number seven.

That rule says no relationships, please, romantic relationships during team service time.

Now they say they didn't make that rule because of us, but all I know is it wasn't there the first year, it was there the year after us Yeah, there's young Doug.

Boy, that's oh my goodness.

And young Anna.

Someone had taken a picture of us.

That's our very first date with Don if you want to call it that at a Jeff Moore in the distance concert with Don Eagle's wings.

Man, I did everything to try to sweep Anna off her feet.

Tried all the the cool the cool New Jersey moves did not work.

I asked a friend of mine, I'm like, well, can can you maybe teach me some Navajo?

Now Navajo is not an easy language to learn.

There's a lot of sounds in it that that you're not used to as uh as a white guy.

I I asked Anna actually this morning. uh when I was preparing a little bit, I said, honey, what did you think actually when I first came up there?

Because I actually learned Navajo came up to her. said I care about you I'm I care for you in Navajo and uh she laughed a little bit and then said thanks um But I asked her, I asked her what did you think at first and that you know like like wow this guy went to all that trouble she said well the first thing I thought was oh no another white guy trying to learn Navajo Yeah.

Thanks, honey.

But I but actually now I have now a whole friends who say, man, I can't believe how well you Say some of our words.

So so there's that.

I had to travel literally if we wanted a date day, it meant seven hours of round trip travel In the car.

Seven hours because I had to drive from where I was living up to where she was.

I took these reservation roads, this one road that had almost like canyons in it.

Driving the our Jeep my Jeep Cherokee literally within a year, I had to I had to get rid of the Jeep because the drive shaft was completely bent and everything on it.

Just like at the end of this road, I'm like checking my fillings.

It was just rattling.

So much but I didn't care because guess what?

There was this there was this hill that it was there was like a wash I had to go down and when that was muddy that was a nightmare.

Then I traveled up a hill, but I was never thinking about all that trouble because guess who was on the other side?

side of that hill.

Yeah.

Um, I was floored by Anna.

I still am.

And uh on May 13th, 1995, because I was floored by her, I surrendered to her and said, from this day on, honey, you first, oh there we are, youngsters again.

Uh 33 years ago, that was kind of a surrender snapshot in my life.

Thirty-three years ago, there's another one.

Um I'm at a conference in Washington DC.

And uh I'm fifteen years old.

I am a disrespectful, angry Profane young man, not because of how I was raised, raised by amazing parents.

I wasn't in some rebellious phase.

I just wanted what I wanted I heard a message about surrender and I ran back to my hotel and for literally 30 minutes I was on my face.

Crying out, and I can't remember the last time I cried, just crying out, remembering sin after sin after sin.

And for 30 minutes I just repented and gave Jesus, all of me.

And I remember I went back, I saw my parents right after that.

And my dad is like, Doug, what happened to you?

Like immediately he said your entire countenance has changed Like thanks dad, what's a countenance?

Is it just just you're smiling and and there there's just a total difference about I actually started calling people.

This is how how how transformed I was.

I started calling people I had sinned against, that I had been angry with, that I had mistreated, just to say, I'm sorry I mistreated you.

I I that's not who I am anymore.

Now of course what happened?

I also considered ministry, full-time ministry for the very first time that summer.

A seed that God planted.

What happened?

I was floored by Jesus and I surrendered.

Complete surrender, Lord, you first, 2,000 years ago.

We see Peter, who has completely failed Jesus.

We're about to read the scripture.

He has completely failed Jesus.

You know the story.

Denied Jesus three times after saying, I will die for you.

I'll do anything for you, Jesus.

And of course, denies Jesus.

Um , guy who's supposed to be the rock.

Luke 22, 62 says where he was at when Jesus looked at him.

Jesus looked at him right after the rooster crowed, and it says, Peter went outside and wept bitterly, and I Read that recently and I thought about my own weeping bitterly time.

And I went, there it is again, surrender.

And this is when Peter It's kind of the chicken becomes Peter the rock and he becomes um uh praising God for chance to be beaten Peter uh for Jesus Peter and he won't back down Peter And the Rock Peter, Pentecost Peter, and it turns out his lowest point was his turning point.

What happened?

Complete surrender.

I'm I'm here this morning.

Just because I feel like there might be somebody in here that is feeling really restless, can't quite place why they feel that way.

Maybe you've known Jesus for a long time, but but something isn't right.

So that's why I want to talk some this morning.

About surrender.

Now, I am a uh a 1980s guy.

Did anyone else someone who grew up in the 80s?

You know, teenage years in the 80s, boy, put them up if you did Oh come on, there's more.

No one else grew up in the 80s.

No one well you remember 80s were a wonderful time.

The A-team, um hairbands, parachute pants, anyone wear those?

I must worn this morning, decided against it.

Uh wonderful movie, Back to the Future.

I mean I just I look just love this mu movie.

It cracks me up every time I watch it.

If you don't remember It's about a uh uh scientist that takes a DeLorean and to quote Marty McFly Marty McFly goes, no, wait a minute.

He tells him he made a time machine.

He goes, Doc, you made a time machine out of a DeLorean?

He took this common DeLorean and turned it into something powerful.

Uh through something called plutonium, I couldn't help but think, but man, obedience, surrender. is life's spiritual plutonium, our spiritual life's spiritual plutonium I I I obedience is is a is a good word.

It's a biblical word, but sometimes I don't love it.

Or um Or something like that, but it it's not really surrender is not about behavior modification.

It's about resigning my way.

And aligning with his way.

This is Jesus in Gethsemane, as Ron was talking about last night, going against every ounce of his flesh.

Saying, I surrender not my will, Lord, but your will.

And getting to that point where he is about to die and be resurrected And live in glory as our King of Kings.

There is just something powerful About full surrender, a word I like a little bit more.

We've been looking in the book of Matthew and See these all some these wonderful examples of surrendered lives.

I mean Joseph, we'll put them up here.

I'm not gonna read all the but Uh Joseph, an angel of the Lord, appeared to Joseph.

He said, Get up, take the child and his mother, and escape to Egypt.

So he got up, took the child and took and His mother uh took his mother and left for Egypt.

Uh get up, take the child and his mother, and go to the land of Israel.

The angel again, so he got up, took the child and his mother, and went.

Next one, Jesus said to his disciples, come follow me at once.

They left their nets and followed him.

He says to the paralyzed man, get up, get up.

He says to another, To Peter, come.

So Peter got out of the boat and came toward Jesus.

I love how there is kind of the exact echo in the language here.

Jesus said, Come.

It came.

Jesus said I don't think that's on a mistake in the word.

This it because it's this unhesitating unquestioning obedience that propels the early acts church out of their cocoon and across the world.

In Jesus' name.

Surrender invites the bottom line is the unmatched supernatural power of Jesus into life's relationships, hardships, circumstances.

And turns lives from ordinary to extraordinary.

These axe believers came face to face with God's power, angels and healings.

There's so many distractions in this life.

I don't know if this would help you, but it really helps me to remember just who I'm surrendering to.

There's all these pictures of Jesus, you know, he's kind of got this Halo and he looks, you know, extra special, gentle, and for some reason he's glowing.

And uh I kind of call it Mushy Jesus, these pictures just where he is he's all, you know Listen to this, that's that's not the Jesus I see, the resurrected King of Kings in Revelation.

I saw heaven standing open, uh what John saw here, and and there before me was a white horse His eyes are like blazing fire, and on his head are many crowns he's dressed in a robe dipped in blood, and his name is the word of God.

The armies of heaven were following him, coming out of his mouth is a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations, he treads the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God Almighty on his robe and on his thigh.

He has this name written, King of Kings.

And Lord of Lords, Jesus is no longer the lowly carpenter, he is the risen king.

You'd think that the response of God's people now Say, no, wait a minute.

This is our risen king.

There's this desperate need around us.

The power that raised Jesus from the dead lives in me.

You'd think that we would be chomping at the bit to make disciples of all nations, but right when we're needed the most, the love of most believers grows cold.

Like Ron mentioned last night, a cold list and a bold list.

Somehow the closer the king's return gets. the colder we get.

And I I don't know about you, but I can't think of any greater tragedies than the apathy of God's people spiritually Coasting, it never leads to spiritual caring.

What if if we grow cold, if if we start retreating And we go into our homes with our families and say, you know what, there's so much evil out there, it's all over the place.

I'm just gonna pr stay here.

I'm gonna protect my family.

I'm gonna wait for Jesus to come back If we grow cold and we don't go out and be these rescuers, what hope do the lost that are hurtling towards a Christless eternity, what hope do they have if we end up on the cold list?

There's an epidemic, I feel like, um, among the church today, people willing to call Jesus Savior but stopping short of Lord.

The Bible actually talks about a person like that, get to this verse in a little bit, as someone who makes it to heaven as escaping through the flames.

Have you heard this phrase at all recently?

Over the last, oh, I don't know, eight years or so.

Some guy you don't like gets in the White House and you go, that's not my president.

Might be your president, not my president.

Have you heard that one But just because someone's in a place of authority and he's placed in authority doesn't mean he's got that authority in our heart 1 John 5. 3 says, this is love for God to keep his commands So we obey God because we love Him and we trust Him.

You saw a picture, uh some video of Taylor, our now almost 16-year-old sons.

Some of all you were were here At the first president's retreat where where we were praying for Taylor when he was still was to be born and we knew he had a lot of heart problems, um, they told us that He probably wouldn't make it out of the birth canal.

I remember clearly the doctors telling us that, preparing us for the worst, just saying we're gonna deliver him, but but just please be prepared.

Things don't look good God did a miracle.

Taylor was born.

A few years later, they had done surgeries and he was doing well until we went to this Doctor's appointment, his cardiologist appointment.

And this cardiologist said, sit down, I want to tell you something.

We've we've done The the x-rays of his heart.

And here's the thing.

Like it's supposed to Um it's i the the the function that pumps the blood from the heart to the rest of the body is getting worse and worse and worse.

There's really nothing we can do about it.

Maybe a heart transplant.

Might work, but this his anatomy is such and he's so small that we don't think that's a great option, but soon it may be our only option.

I went home with Anna and I said, did I just hear right?

Did she just tell me that our son is dying?

I called some friends, I told them, started trying to deal with it.

Best way I knew how.

Then I remembered um it said in the book of James, and I had never done this before, but I I it it popped in my head that if um if any of you is sick, then Go to the leaders of the church, the elders of the church, anoint that person with oil, pray over him, and he will be made well.

I said, I've never done that before.

It feels weird.

Never used oil like that before.

But I got on the phone, I called our pastor.

I said, can we come to the church?

He said, you know what, we're gathered here right now.

We're meeting right now.

Come over right now.

So that's what we did.

We did it exactly the way That the book of James said to word for word.

And we prayed.

About three weeks later, we went back to the doctor to talk about more options.

And I will never forget this.

One of the most incredible days of my life.

She comes in, almost, I've never seen her.

She's just got this big smile.

She goes, she says, I don't know how to tell you this because I don't know how this happened.

But she said, we just took a picture of his heart, and Doug Anna, his heart is pumping normally like a normal boy's heart should.

We don't need to do a surgery.

He's better.

I said, Doctor I know sometimes this is weird for doctors.

Do you mind if I say praise God?

And she said, if you don't, I will.

That's the kind of God that calls us to surrender to Him It says, if you will just obey, God could have done it a different way, could have taken longer to do that, or maybe it had chosen to do it that way.

But he took this time to show me that Doug, if you'll just surrender and trust me, you will see such power in your life.

Um course how many w how much we surrender to kingship, um his kingship is reviewed at sobering the sobering destination of every believer, the bhimisit.

2 Corinthians 5 10, this is where believers stand before Jesus.

We must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each of us may receive what is due us for the things done while in the body, whether good were bad.

This is apparently a time where there's another scripture that says we must give we give an account of ourselves to God.

And this is apparently a time that sometimes I don't hear it talked about, preached a lot about But we are going to review our lives with Jesus.

And apparently there's going to be joy there, apparently there's going to be tears there as we talk about the opportunities he gave us. the relationships within the time he gave us and how we spent or didn't spend those.

But at this place, at this Bhima seat, we get this amazing thing.

Eternal, lasting forever, or rewards I think, how good is this Jesus?

How good is this Jesus that he gives us eternal rewards for what he enabled us to do?

1 Corinthians 2 9.

No eye has seen, no ear has heard, and no mind has imagined what God has prepared for those who love him.

The first scripture I thought of at the beginning of mom 's. funeral, her her her life celebration, thinking that's what she's experiencing experiencing.

Uh rewards In heaven for eternity, but also now too.

Listen to some of these these are the awesome outcomes of obedience.

Now there's a little bit of a notebook change.

It might think it might be a little later.

I switched it around a little bit But just real quick, let's go through a few things that when we completely surrender every part of our lives to God, these are the promises for the here and now.

First of all, God's blessing.

Know that the Lord has set apart his faithful.

That's us, his faithful servant for himself.

The Lord hears when I call to him.

Psalm 1 1 through 3.

Blessed is the one whose delight is in the law of the Lord and who meditates on it day and night, whatever they do.

Prosperous with God's uh God's ear, first of all.

I'm sorry, and then God's blessing, God's peace.

One of my favorite scriptures: don't be anxious about anything, but in every situation by prayer and petition With Thanksgiving, present your request to God.

Here we go against surrendering.

Maybe you're in that a time like that right now where you just you're so worried about something.

You're so uh uh something in a bank account or or with the child and you just haven't fully released it, you maybe you're uh too afraid to.

And he says, don't be anxious, give that to me, and then this awesome promise that I have seen delivered on time after time after time, the peace of Christ that transcends all understanding will guard your hearts. and minds in Christ Jesus.

Um there's this awesome eternity math That says somehow these moments of obedience that we have where we choose just to do something, even if it's hard, to obey God, even if it's difficult.

Means millions of years of indescribable reward.

How good is this Jesus that the one who is crowned will crown us?

Revelation 2.

10 If you remain faithful, I will give you the crown of life.

And then There will be no more night, for the Lord God will give them light, and they will reign forever and ever.

If we endure hardship, we will reign with him.

He even says, this is how amazing our Jesus is You obey, you surrender to me, you will reign with me.

Now, apparently, if you read scripture, this is not for every Christian.

It's possible to Be saved and go to heaven, but not be reigning with Christ.

Reigning with Christ is reserved for those who surrender, who say, Lord, you get every part of me I just it that just blows my mind.

Um he says if we endure, so how do we do that?

How do we endure while he gives us the ability to do that too?

Back to 1 John 5.

Everyone born of God overcomes the world, so we can overcome because Jesus did.

Now, I I'll tell you this.

If you're in this room, the odds are that you're on Hell's hit list because you carry the name that makes hell tremble.

And if you dare to share Jesus with anybody in your world, you better know the enemy Is coming after you.

I've seen it time after time.

We have no reason to fear that, but the Lord does tell us be vigilant.

Because the enemy is, he's keeping an eye on you, especially if you're really an ambassador.

Gives us some biblical advice, be aware of his schemes, put on the full armor of God, as it says in uh Ephesians 6.

So that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes.

In the Lord of the Rings, there's this Decisive battle, it's called it.

Helm's Deep.

It's in the movie.

I think it's in Return of the King.

Actually, there's this, it's it's the worst of the bad guys versus the best of the good guys And I remember they're having a conversation, I think it was Gandalf that says, well, there's only I think that we've got a great fortress here, but there's one little problem.

There is a little weakness in the wall.

Now it's just kind of down, way down over there.

I think it's like just for to get water in and sewage and all that stuff.

And so that's the only weakness we have.

But otherwise An incredible fortress, and of course you can probably imagine the first place that the bad guys go for.

They blow it up and they get right in the fortress.

This is a an awesome picture.

Of how the enemy deals with us.

Don't give the devil a foothold, don't even give him an inch because he looks for it and then he exploits it.

Listen to this amazing quote from Charles Spurgeon.

It says, when the archspy, that's the enemy, when the archspy finds a weak place in the wall of our castle, he takes care to place his battering ram and begin his siege.

You may conceal even from your dearest friend your weakness, but you will not conceal it from your worst enemy, who has linked size and detects in a moment. the joint in your armor.

That's the bad news.

The good news is we have the ultimate shield.

Where we put the armor on every day, and that's of course God's word.

It's just fascinating to me that when when so Jesus is in the wilderness and He's getting hit by temptation after temptation by the enemy.

Enemy's throwing everything he can against Jesus.

Trying to just something's got to work.

I've got to throw this guy off.

Of course, I know what's coming.

If I don't think of all the weapons Jesus has at his disposal to get rid of the enemy.

He's got legions of angels at his command.

Don't get rid of him.

Get him out of my face.

He's got the logic that created the universe Well, I'll just reason with him.

Jesus himself fights the enemy with three words every time.

You remember what they are?

It is written.

It is written.

It is written.

And time after time after time.

That's Jesus' response.

And if it is the Son of God's response, how much more must that be?

Ours and how can it be ours if we're not saturated with the word of God If we're not spending time every day, David says morning by morning, I I lay my request before you and I wait in expectation.

Is that what your morning looks like?

Maybe even before your coffee, or if you're like my wife, maybe you should have your coffee first.

And then do it.

But is that is that how your morning looks?

That there is this time where I am I am listening to the Lord through reading his love letter to me and responding in turn.

Through awesome scripture.

So the enemy throws his lies at you.

He throws a lie at you and he says Well, you know what?

You've had a lot of failure in your life.

You're a loser.

And you say, you know what?

No, actually, I'm God's masterpiece He says, you've messed up too much for him to use you anymore to love you.

Actually, nothing can separate me from the love that's in Christ Jesus.

Well that you know what?

You're gonna fail.

I can do all things through Jesus who gives me strength You'll never amount to anything.

Well, actually, I'm the light of the world.

And with God, all things are possible.

When He comes after you, whatever it is in your life right now, when He comes after you Respond with it is written.

And then just like you did with Jesus in Matthew 4 Jesus says, and I'm paraphrasing here, Satan, go away.

I've had it with you.

And because he is battling with the word of God, and because he is the Son of God, he goes away.

Because he is utterly defeated by the word of God.

And he will be in your life and in your situation.

Because here's the thing, authority in the kingdom of heaven resides in the words of Jesus He says, I've been given all authority.

He told his disciples, I've been given all authority, and all that authority resides in his words.

No wonder the word is so under attack in our world.

Remember in Matthew 8, the I won't read it all, but the centurion, a guy who understands authority.

He says, I want you, I've got a sick servant.

And Jesus says, You want me to heal him?

And he says, yes.

Jesus says, well, let's go to your house.

And he says, no.

Just say the word. and I know will be healed.

And Jesus said, that's a guy who gets it.

See the enemy wants you to starve spiritually.

We go, well it's just reading the Bible, right?

And and I mean of course that's not that hard to do.

Then how come a week and go a day and then three days and then a week and then a month and we go, uh I'm not I'm not feeling so good spiritually anymore.

And we go, the the time with Jesus can wait.

And we don't know it, but we're slowly starving spiritually.

The enemy will do everything he can do to keep you from the word because he knows where the power is.

He was reminded it with Jesus in the wilderness, and he knows now the biggest job in the military, attack your enemy's power source.

This is why It's not about, oh, go read your Bible.

This is about whether you're going to have power or be overpowered, where whether you'll be overcoming or whether you'll be overcome.

I promise you, in that moment of decision, when you're deciding, should I just go right to work or should I get with the Lord?

Should I word up for the day?

I promise you, Jesus is inviting you to a deeper relationship with him, and the enemy is inviting you to anything else.

Anything else?

Football, my favorite show, Facebook, a workout, even good things like church.

We can't ever let The enemy distract us because what a shame because the knowledge of Christ leads to love of Christ, leads to obedience of Christ, this beautiful Spiritual progression.

When you memorize scripture, this has been my experience through my whole life.

Holy knowledge becomes part of your spiritual DNA.

It's never just learning the words, something happens In the renewing of our mind, and we and we memorize the scripture and it comes here and it goes here and then it comes out this miracle just by memorizing, just by spending some time With Jesus and man, does this make you a rare friend in times of crisis?

They know who to go to They know who to go to.

This is the person that I have seen has answers that acts differently than everybody all because they're powered by the Word of God.

They don't know that that's the reason.

But you do.

And how's this for overcoming?

Normans 12, 2.

One of my favorite promises You get in God's word and listen to what happens.

Be transformed by the renewing of your mind.

Then you'll be able to test and approve what God's will is.

It's very interesting to me that some of the biggest sins in our world today that are hurting people.

Attack the mind.

Do you know what opiate addiction does?

It literally takes your mind and and changes it up.

It changes the way it's made.

It makes it so hard to get off of it.

And there's so much addiction.

It happens with lots of drugs, especially opiate.

Pornography.

There was a book that came out a few or four years ago.

It says how pornography hijacks the male brain.

You know that there's this weird something happens with the serotonin and all the chemicals when when guys are looking at porn Where they just have to have so much more and have weird expectations of their wife and all this crazy stuff because their mind has been attacked.

The enemy knows that that's where Your source of your behavior is.

And so thank God for this.

And I remember reading this when I was 15, going, You're telling me you can rewire this thing?

I've looked at too much.

I've thought too much garbage.

I've said too much garbage.

He says we can do a reset.

It can for you.

It can for the people you love.

As we spend time within the word with them, remember that surrendering to Jesus is driven by love.

It's not just reading a book, it's about relationship, not rules.

I'm so glad that God doesn't expect perfection.

As much as he expects pursuit.

Sometimes we forget this is a relationship.

I communicate with my wife because I love her There's still things to learn about her.

And I love to learn something new every day.

And I don't do it because I have to.

I do it because I love her.

We've got to stop looking at time in the Word and time with the Lord as some requirement.

Yeah, it's good to be disciplined and do it when we don't feel like it But it's so much more than that.

You know, David, a guy who messed up so much, you would think this is a guy who God has got a real problem with, and he did sometimes.

And uh but then there's that scripture that says that David was actually described by God as a man that followed all God's rules.

Wait a minute He was a man after his own heart.

That's what pursuit of our Heavenly Father is, of Jesus and the Holy Spirit.

1 Corinthians 3 12 through 15.

Paul's talking about the deeds we do in the body.

And he has something really sobering to say.

All those great things you do.

I mean, even the little stuff, whether it's sending an email, leading a Bible study, going to church, whatever it is , Here we go back to the Bhima seat.

Our work will be shown for what it is.

Because the day will bring it to light, it will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each person's work.

If what has been built survives, the builder will receive a reward.

And that makes me think immediately.

I don't even know who said it, but that just one life will soon be passed.

Only what's done for Christ will last.

And that's the key This is what becomes eternal reward.

What becomes eternal reward is something that's done out of love for Jesus and out of pursuit of him, not to look good It's all about I remember this weird question in my acting class.

I took acting.

I thought it was going to be an easy class at Wheaton during my final year.

It was really hard.

I was with a lot of acting people that took it very seriously.

And I remember our acting uh Professor he kept saying, Doug, what's your motivation?

What's your motivation?

I said, I have no idea.

Why do you keep asking me that?

But that's what Paul's asking here.

What is your motivation?

Why are you doing those things?

And again, this is why it's so important to make sure we have surrendered.

And it's a day-by-day experience, isn't it?

It's interesting, Dad shared this with me recently.

Jim Elliott, the amazing missionary, said a lifetime cannot be surrendered in a moment.

It can only be surrendered over a lifetime.

This is a day by day meeting with the Lord, surrendering to Him, and not just, okay, God, I surrender.

I hope I have a good day.

It is thinking about every hardship Every relationship, every difficulty, every challenge, every coworker, and going, I completely release this to you, Lord.

I'll mess it up if I do it myself.

I completely release it to you.

I can't wait to see what you're gonna do.

That's why listen, uh I remember dad said this to me.

This was a long time ago.

But he talked to me about cruise control Christians.

What is that?

And he told me, well, Doug, the greatest enemy of uh of these eternal rewards and living life for Jesus is being a cruise control Christian.

It's dangerous operating.

On spiritual cruise control, dynamic faith is always fueled by fresh obediences.

How else can we do that?

Just like the Acts Church did.

Without this regular time with our Savior.

Isn't it so many times in the Bible it's so funny the disciples are running around and they're all busy and everything.

Has anyone seen Jesus?

Where's Jesus?

Where is he?

What do they always say?

Oh, he's off with praying again.

He's off with the father again The Son of God himself making sure he was aligned with what God wanted him to do that day, in those moments.

That's why every decision for us begins with this question.

What do you think, Lord?

And we spend that time with him.

And now by recognizing his orders, I can better recognize the enemy's plans because he's got them for you.

God's got a plan for your life.

So does the enemy Um the problem is uh let's read let's read this first.

Uh like we said earlier, we're familiar with Satan's evil schemes.

That's part one of the problem.

Part two is in Jeremiah it says that our hearts are deceitful above all and even says, who knows how how evil it is?

It's just it's just awful.

And we're always still battling our flesh.

And this, what I think, when I read that, I think, man, that means I think we're professional rationalizers for our pet sins You know, everyone else is saying, oh, how dare he?

Can you believe what he's doing?

I'm going to put that on social media.

And we miss all these little pet sins of our own.

That rob us of God's power unleashed in our lives.

The Acts Church There was a time where they had these books of incantation, and they said You know what we're going to do?

We're going to go sell all those, make some money, and we'll give it to the Lord.

No.

And so we're going to put them in the drawers, and we're never going to go out and no.

They burned them.

They said it was worth millions of dollars and they burned them.

That's how serious they were about getting rid of bridges back to those sins.

When we're sharing with our beautiful friends in Native America and in any culture, we go, we gotta figure out the things that can be bridges back.

To those sins and do whatever it takes to get rid of them.

For me, it was this is how old I am.

I did not have, I I tell my children I had this Time where I had a bunch of cassettes and they said Daddy what's a cassette?

So there were these little square things.

And if you wanted to hear music, you had to find the thing and put it in there and rewind and fast forward and all these things.

Hit play and here comes the music.

I said that's so weird.

But I literally had when I got home from that Conference, it was called DC 88.

You know what I did?

I had probably a hundred tapes of all the groups I should not be listening to that fed every dark part of me And I poured gasoline on him in the driveway.

Should have asked mom and dad first.

I will admit that.

I probably also should have figured out just how much gasoline you need to make a fire.

No eyebrows later.

But they were literally were just a black spot on the black top.

And I really so I I felt, I don't know how to explain it, just this sense of relief.

They don't have me anymore and we each have to what's it for you this morning?

We've all got them just the one that you keep going back to instead of Jesus for comfort Um talk about the signs of true surrender before we wrap up here What does surrender look like in my life?

Let's look at it real quick.

To know Jesus is to thirst for him.

In Psalm 42, here's David again as the deer longs for streams of water, so I long for you, O God.

David Psalms, a man aching for communion with the Almighty.

And if you aren't and you're like, well, I don't feel that way, ask him.

Pursue him.

He doesn't want you Feeling all sad and depressed and wondering, do I even belong to him?

Does he care?

He feels so far away.

He says , If you will draw near to me, I'll draw near to you.

Just ask him.

Open up to him like David did, and he will fill you.

With what you need.

Some other marks of a disciple, real quick.

Paul said, examine yourself to see if you're in the faith.

Let's grab these real let's burn through these real quick here.

But first of all, they put these on your fridge maybe.

I don't know.

But but marks of a disciple.

You love God's word.

Jesus said if you hold my teaching, you really are my disciples.

Jesus is first no matter what.

Remember Jesus telling the rich young ruler, sell everything you have and give to the poor, then you will have treasure in heaven.

Then come follow me.

Put whatever that one thing is that's separating it that that's between you and the Lord right now in your relationship.

And let Jesus look you in the eye and say, maybe not sell everything, but fill in the blank there, and then you'll have treasure in heaven.

Then come follow me, Jesus, first, no matter what.

You're on a spiritual rescue mission, joining Jesus on the Great Commission.

Remember, all authority in heaven and earth has been given to me, therefore go make disciples of all nations.

Nations, you don't let sin win.

We're those who have died to sin.

We are his blood-bought church.

We have died to sin.

How can we live in it any longer?

We keep a rant, you keep a rein on your tongue.

Tongues of fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body.

It's a restless evil full of Deadly poison.

I just put these in here.

We're not spending a lot of time on these, but I put these in here.

Maybe later today, maybe sometime you'll go and in and pray through these scriptures.

And you stand up when things get tough, and I promise you things are gonna get more tough if you're a follower of Jesus.

James 112 says, Blessed is the one who perseveres under trial, that person will receive the crown of life that the Lord has promised to those who love him.

And finally, uh one mark of a disciple is you might be actually surrounded by some people who think you're crazy.

Including other Christians.

And you know what?

Sometimes a Christian will accuse you of being legalistic or something.

They say, come on, you're always bringing up the Bible.

Why don't you make a decision a little bit more on what you're feeling and on the circumstance?

And they'll call obedience legalism.

Don't listen to them.

Holy, living holy is not legalism.

Making your own rules and calling them gods are.

But saying, I want to be blessed and my life filled with power.

So yeah, I'm gonna live a holy life.

Even if more and more Christians around me think I'm nuts.

Surrendering our crowns to him and laying them at his feet are beautifully represented in this hymn.

You know that crown him with many crowns?

I feel like singing it right now, but I'm not gonna.

Crown him with many crowns, his glory is now we sing, who died and rose on high.

Who died eternal life to bring and lives that death may die.

Crown him with many crowns The beauty and glory of us, his saints, choosing to crown our matchless king by surrendering to him. and submitting our lives to him.

As his disciples, you go through the book of Matthew and you read some of the most repeated commands.

Of Jesus, here they are.

Follow me.

Do not be afraid.

Come.

Go.

Get up.

Most of these have something in common.

Which is moving out from our comfort zone and into the battle.

Seems like there's a lot of stuff there about get off the couch.

Come, go, get up, follow me, don't be afraid.

There's this great Marines commercial recently.

Uh says we're running towards the battle and everyone else runs from it.

Well that's us Into the battle for people's lives, into their battles with addictions and in their relationships.

While I was preparing this message Jesus said, spoke to me and said, I'm requiring surrender of you in an area of your life.

And we needed to have some time together.

It's possible he's saying that to you today.

I'm just gonna beg you that if Jesus through any time this weekend is is knocking on the door of your heart and asking for complete surrender.

That you don't let this day go by without getting with him and letting him talk with you and confessing it to him.

Maybe, maybe don't even leave this room. before you do it.

If he's asking for co complete surrender, don't let this day end without surrendering.

If you do surrender and you mean it, just uh fasten your seat belt.

So if it's anything like my experience You're going to see God's power transform your relationships, your hardships, your circumstances.

That's his promise.

Take him up on it as you surrender everything.

Um I love this.

I'm a bottom line guy.

I'm from New Jersey.

So I love bottom line verses.

What the Father said to the disciples, this is my son, whom I love.

Listen to him.

We will, Father, because He's King Jesus.

We'll pray that way, we'll believe that way, we'll live that way.

Heavenly Father, I just thank you.

So I was just reminded through reading your word again yesterday that you are A God full of compassion and you're slow to anger, you know what we are made of.

You know that we are formed from dust.

Thank you for your patience with us.

We uh just together want to commit our lives to you together.

Um Lord, I just pray for for anybody In this uh room, these wonderful dear saints, brothers and sisters, uh Lord, if if there's anything they need special courage to surrender to you, I pray you would give that to them and I pray that they would not wait a moment.

Do not delay.

We love you.

We thank you for this time together.

In Jesus' name, amen.